An interesting story in the FT today reports that continuity Remainers are riven by splits, cannot agree on how to oppose Brexit and view each other with “suspicion“. The paper says “working out which MPs will vote together, and on which issues, has proved to be a political Rubik’s Cube, with suspicion on all sides“. There are apparently no less than three Remainer camps:

Pro-EU Labour moderates seeking to change Shadow Cabinet policy so Labour as a party can try to block Brexit.

Tory Europhiles who oppose their pro-EU Labour colleagues using Labour as the vehicle to reverse Brexit. Instead they want to change Tory policy from within because they don’t want Labour to score a win.

Anti-Brexit SNP and Plaid MPs who also don’t want Labour to take the credit for fighting Brexit because Labour is their main rival .

The FT’s analysis of these Remainer splits and suspicion is: “while Mrs May claims a narrow majority of just 12 in the House of Commons, defeating her in the autumn may prove more difficult than the numbers would make it seem”. A slightly different narrative to the usual ‘Cabinet splits’ stuff…

Quote of the Day

Dominic Cummings says a second referendum would smash the party system…
“… the logical corollary will be to morph into a new party and fight the next election ‘to implement the promises we made in the referendum because the MPs have proved they can’t be trusted’. “